How Long Will the 'God Particle' Remain Elusive?

Given the rarity of Higgs boson particles, CERN will only be able to reward 10 lucky winners.

Photo: Reuters

English theoretical physicist Dr. Peter Higgs may be an atheist, but his hypothetical subatomic particle is seen as the Almighty himself.

Ever since Higgs put forward his theory in 1960, scientists have been trying to decipher his hypothetical quantum field ("Higgs field"). However, the "God Particle" has remained elusive.

The term 'God Particle' was coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman in his book with the same title. Lederman explained the term as a short form of the 'goddamn particle' the existence of which continues to dog the world of science.

The director general of the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) has shot down current speculations on the existence of the 'God Particle.' The 'God Particle' is also known as the 'subatomic particle' and 'Higgs boson'.

The director general of Cern, Professor Rolf Heuer, noted that data gathered by its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and experiments based on these might probably throw open new links to the existence of the Higgs boson in a year's time.

Dr Peter Higgs professed his theory that a single particle or sub atom was responsible for rendering mass to all elements in nature. This single fraction is considered as the key that gives each particle their mass potentials. This fragment is deemed precious and has been termed by physicists as 'God Particle'.

The assumption on the existence of 'God Particle' or Higgs boson, as it is scientifically termed, has given scientists a backup to base their experiments on the postulated Big Bang theory and beyond while raising new postulates on the same.

The basic step for physicist has been to locate Higgs boson by smashing two particles at high speeds using an atomic smasher such as the Cern's Large Hadron Collider at Cern and Tevatron at Fermilab, Chicago. The debris stream generated is studied further to seek Higgs' belief on the existence of that one elusive particle that renders momentum to the universe.

The particle is slated to overcome inconsistencies in theoretical physics.

The root of the Higgs boson particle is based on the Standard Model, a theoretical model developed by physicists that relate to particle physics.

The model explains the nature of electromagnetic reactions, weak nuclear force (such as radioactivity) or strong nuclear forces (that hold the nuclei) that intervene with the dynamics of known subatomic particles.

The Higgs Boson mechanism attempts to explain the concept of mass-less photon, which mediates electromagnetism, and its difference with the W and Z bosons, that arbitrate the weak forces.

The existence of the Higgs boson is postulated to be vital to matter around the universe. If it did exist, it would be classified under scalar bosons. While bosons have integer spin, scalar bosons could have a zero spin.

The photon is a kind of boson in the quantum field with particles that are all vector bosons, with spin 1. Currently, no elementary scalar bosons are known. However, particles with zero spin might exist in nature.

As the search goes on, the existence of other particulate matter with zero spin continues to pose a challenge to physicist in their discovery and interpretation of Dr Higgs' 'vital' subatomic particle!

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